Welting



193% H. A. OSBORNE 1, 49%

WELTING Filed Jan. 13, 1932 Patented Jan. 23, 1934 1 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WELTIN G Harold A. Osborne, Swampscott, Mass., assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application January 13, 1932. Serial No. 586,387

4 Claims. (01. 3678) This invention relates to improvements in weltthe accompanying drawing and pointed out in ing and is disclosed herein, for the sake of illusthe claims. p tration, with respect to welting particularly The drawing illustrates somewhat diagramadapted for use in the manufacture of that type matically the production of pre-roughened welt,- 5 of welted shoe in which the outsole is secured ing. s to the welt of the shoe by cement in place of the The welting illustrated in the drawing comusual stitching. prises a strip of leather having continuous, It is usual in manufacturing welted shoes the substantially straight, parallel edges 12 and '14, soles of which are cement attached to perform a plane grain surface 16 and a plane flesh-surthe lasting, welting and inseam trimming operaface. 18 parallel thereto, the latterbeing provided 55 tions in substantially the same manner as in the near the edge of the welting with a shallow stitch j manufacture of Goodyear Welt shoes using, howreceiving groove 20. While the dimensions'of the ever, in many instances a welting both lighter and welting would naturally be varied in accordance thinner than is ordinarily used even in the lighter with the type of shoe in which it is to be used,

weights of Goodyear Welt shoes; After the inpreferred dimensions of welting for womenslight- 7o seam trimming operation the welt may be beaten weight welted shoes having cement-attached soles and the inseam rolled. Then the sole-engaging are about of an inch wide and of an inch surface of the welt and the trimmed edges resultthick or a little less, with the center of the groove ing from the inseam trimming operation are about of an inch from the edge of the welt-v 20 roughened to prepare those surfaces for the reing. 7|

ception of pyroxylin cement by means of which When the welt is stitched to the lasted shoe, the sole is to be attached. The somewhat conupper and insole the grain surface of the welting cave form in which the welting is held by the engages the shoe upper and the sole, when it is inseam at times interferes, however, with the attached, engages the flesh surface of the welteffective roughing of the portion of the surface ing. 80

0f h welting immediately adjacent to the in- It is usual in the manufacture of welted shoes seam and this reduces the effectiveness of the having cement-attached soles to last the shoe upbond between the cement and the leather of the per to a ribbed or lipped insole in substantially, we ting. the same manner as in the manufacture of Good- 39 It is, accordingly, an object of the present inyear Welt shoes and then to stitch the welting 5 vention to overcome the difiiculty just mentioned to the marginal portion of the lasted upper and and this is done, as herein disclosed, by preto the lip or rib of the insole. After this the roughening the welting, that is by roughening surplus portion of the margin of the upper and the welting before it is incorporated in the shoe. of the lip or rib of the insole, as well as the p Preferably, and as illustrated herein, the welting edge portion of the welt adjacent to the upper, 90 is roughened while in long lengths and before it is are trimmed off by the usual inseam trimming supplied to the Welter who stitches it to the lasted operation as in the manufacture of Goodyear shoes. This not only insures that the portion of Welt shoes. Then the welt may be beaten and the welt immediately adjacent to the stitches of slashed,'if desired, by the usual welt beating and 4 the inseam will be properly roughened but reslashing machine and the inseam rolled by a maduces substantially the labor of the roughening chine of the character commonly used for leveloperation which must be performed after the ing Goodyear Welt shoes after which the usual welt has been attached and the shoe inseam bottom filler may be applied in the space inside trimmed since it is only necessary then to roughen of the rib or lip at the forepart of the insole. The the freshly cut surfaces resulting from the inwelt of the shoe and the edges of stock produced 190 seam trimming operation and as these are both by the inseam trimming. operation are then definitely defined and solid they can be roughtoughened and coated with pyroxylin cement. ened very easily and without the necessity of in- In spite of the welt beating and rolling operacorporating in the roughening machine a suptions the welt cannot be depended upon to lie port for the welt. entirely fiat. Particularly, there is likely to be 105 Accordingly, my invention comprises an article a slight concavity where the welt is pulled inof manufacture consisting of pre-roughened weltwardly by the inseam toward the shoe upper and ing, as hereinafter more fully disclosed. the rib or lip of the insole, and this concavity, With the above and otherrobjects in view the together with the slight projection of the stitches invention will now be described with reference to of the inseam. tends to protect the portion of the welt immediately adjacent to the inseam from the roughening operation and, accordingly, to interfere with the formation of the best kind of bond between the welt and the pyroxylin cement. To obviate this condition I propose to roughen the welt before it is attached to the shoe and one way of doing this is illustrated somewhat diagrammatically in the drawing. The welt 10. as illustrated, is supported by a roll or wheel 22 as it is drawn past a rotating wire brush 24 mounted on a shaft 26 which may be driven in any suitable fashion. As illustrated, the wire brush 24 rotates transversely of the welting so that the marks made by the wires of the brush as the brush roughens the welt appear as approximately parallel lines, indicated at 28 in the drawing, extending across the welt from one edge to the other. This treatment picks up or raises the fibre of the welt thereby separating the fibres and leaving the surface of the welt in the best sort of condition for the reception of pyroxylin cement. The entire flesh surface of the welt, except that portion of the surface occupied by the stitch receivinggroove, may thus be roughened.

It should be understood that the welt may be fed and guided by any suitable means as it is roughened. Moreover, it is obvious that the roughening, which is preferably done when the manufacture of the welting is otherwise substantially completed, may be performed in other ways than as illustrated. It may be performed by a wire brush operating lengthwise instead of transversely of the welt. Or it may be performed by other means, such as abrasive or bufling tools; or by a knife or group of knives arranged to cut a series of fine, closely spaced grooves in the welt; or by punch-like tools; or by tools which pick at the surface of the welting. Moreover, it is not essential, in all aspects of the invention, that the welt be grooved.

While the drawing illustrates a pre-roughening of the entire flesh or sole-engaging face of the welt strip, except the stitch receiving groove, it will be clear that it is not essential that this entire area be roughened since the inner edge of the welt adjacent to the stitch receiving groove is later removed when the inseam trimming operation is performed on the welted shoe.

The use of pre-roughened welting in the manufacture of shoes the soles of which are cement attached not only assures that the portions of the welt immediately adjacent to the inseam will be properly roughened but greatly facilitates the performance of the roughening operation which must be done after the welt has been attached and the shoe inseam trimmed since it is only necessary then to toughen the freshly cut surface resulting from the inseam trimming operation. Whatever roughening is done on the flesh surface of the welting outside the trimmed inseam portion is merely a re-roughening, and it is not necessary to take care that this re-roughening extends over the whole or any substantial part of the untrimmed portion of the welt lying outside the trimmed inseam portion. As the surfaces resulting from the inseam trimming operation are both definitely defined and solid they can be roughened with a minimum of care and labor.

The manufacture of shoes in accordance with my improved method may be completed by the methods commonly used in the manufacture of welted shoes having cement-attached soles. That is to say, cement is applied to the roughened marginal portion of the outsole and after that cement, as well as the cement on the welt and the edges resulting from the inseam trimming operation, has dried, the cement on one or both of those surfaces is cut with a suitable solvent, the sole applied to the shoe and the shoe and sole maintained under pressure while the cement sets.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. As an article of manufacture, narrow light-weight welting not over about {a of an inch wide and not over about of an inch thick for use in making shoes having cement attached soles, having its entire flesh and grain surfaces substantially parallel and its sole engaging surface roughened over its whole area to receive sole attaching cement.

2. As an article of manufacture, narrow lightweight leather welting for use in making shoes having cement attached soles, having its flesh surface provided with a shallow groove and roughened over substantially its entire area, including those portions immediately adjacent to and on both sides of the groove, to receive sole attaching cement.

3. As an article of manufacture, narrow lightweight leather welting for use in making welted shoes having cement-attached outsoles, said welting having its sole engaging face buffed whereby its fibres are raised and separated so as to provide a roughened surface for the reception of cement.

4. As an article of manufacture, narrow lightweight grain-faced leather welting for use in making welted shoes having cement-attached outsoles, said welting having its flesh face provided with a shallow stitch-receiving groove near one edge and having the fibres of the sole-engaging area between said groove and the other edge lifted and separated to enhance the ocment retaining quality of said sole-engaging area.

HAROLD A. OSBORNE. 

